Page - 431 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Army High Command and Domestic Policy 431 If the Army High Command failed with its applications for appointing a general as Governor of Bohemia, it was successful in the case of Galicia and Bukovina. The rele- vant requests had begun even earlier than those for Bohemia. The first remarks on this can be found in a ‘Most Humble Presentation’ from 14 October 1914.1028 The justifica- tion, however, was partially a different one. The necessity of the suppression of activities hostile to the state was also emphasised for Poland, but then it was claimed that only a military chief of the regional administration could bridge the antagonisms between the parties and above all between Poles and Ruthenians. Galicia and Bukovina, which up till then had been administered as one, were therefore each to receive their own individual military governor. In this way, Conrad wanted to accommodate the Ruthe- nians, since one of the governors proposed by him was to be headquartered in Lviv and to administer East Galicia and Bukovina, in other words the territories inhabited by Ruthenians. The other governor was to administer from Kraków (Krakau) only western Galicia and any other territorial gains. All these considerations temporarily became irrelevant as a result of the Russian advance. Not until May 1915 was the Army High Command able to renew its applications. But neither the Emperor nor Stürgkh allowed Cieszyn to execute these proposals. And this was in spite of Conrad making every effort via the Imperial Military Chancellery to make clear his standpoint and the various intentions. He knew that General Bolfras had championed the concerns of the Army High Command towards the Emperor, and he subsequently assured the Chief of the Military Chancellery how grateful he was that Bolfras had advocated Conrad’s ideas ‘with the most decisive authority’. ‘I attach the greatest importance to this because I cannot be absolutely certain whether the so-called influential authorities are also of the opinion that the imperial concept be placed higher than particularistic, chauvinistic ambitions. To place this imperial concept higher, how- ever, is not only an urgent requirement with regard to the current military situation but also in respect of the future organisation and consolidation of the Monarchy as well as the creation of a situation that guarantees a longer-lasting peace.’1029 (By ‘the so-called influential authorities’, Conrad evidently meant the Austrian government.) Finally, on 18 June, at Conrad’s aforementioned audience with the Emperor, the Chief of the General Staff addressed the Monarch directly regarding the problem and received permission to appoint a general as governor in Galicia, though without dis- secting the crown lands into a Polish part and a Ruthenian part. It had been above all Prime Minister Stürgkh who had vehemently opposed an alteration in the Galician regional constitution, since he did not want to alienate Poland. In mid-July, General Hermann von Colard assumed the position of Governor of Galicia. Initially, nothing more happened that corresponded to what Conrad referred to as the ‘imperial concept’. If the antagonism between the Army High Command and the Prime Minister had been defused in this way, a conflict came about when Stürgkh accepted a claim brought